For many months now, there has been much speculation about what did and did not take place at during the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown Connecticut.  Some of this speculation has been harmful in various ways.  For example, parents of children at the school and educators in the region have expressed to me that inaccurate information about the incident has been painful to them.  I have heard this many times before with past school shooting events.  Inaccurate conjecture and speculation about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School has also had a noticeable and adverse impact on how prepared educators are to respond to school crisis events.  Our analysts have noticed a distinct increase in missed action steps and of even greater concern, dangerous action steps during our controlled school crisis simulations since the school shooting in Newtown.

Hopefully, the Connecticut State Police report will provide us with a clearer picture of what did and did not take place at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  At the same time, we must understand that there will almost assuredly be some unanswered questions even after the report is released.   Having worked seven active shooter incidents in K12 schools, my experience has been that even when you review thousands of pages of police reports, depositions and other documents, there will be some things about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that we simple will not be able to determine with certainty.

As with past active shooter incidents, many people will focus on a few aspects of the incident while some of the most critical lessons we can learn will be largely ignored.  This has definitely been my experience with several mass casualty school shootings I have worked including the Thurston High School Shooting in Oregon, the school shooting in Tabor, Canada and the Red Lake Reservation school shooting in Minnesota.  Some of the most important lessons learned from each of these tragic school shootings have still not been addressed in many school systems and non public schools in the United States and Canada.

Much of the public discourse following this tragic event has been relatively unproductive creating fear, anger and disagreement over what might have worked while we often ignore many things that are proven to work to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from school shootings.   Our hope is that we can learn some key lessons from the Connecticut State Police report on the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School so the tragic loss of lives in Newtown will not have been totally in vain. 

I found this interview with the bookkeeper who did such a superb job in de-escalating the extremely tense hostage situation at a Dekalb County Georgia elementary school to be an excellent example of how well school employees can perform under dire conditions.   This interview helps to demonstrate how important it is to remember that not all aggressors armed with guns are active shooters.  Had this school employee attempted to attack and disarm this aggressor, a far more deadly incident would likely have occurred.  Though the various approaches to train school employees to attack an active shooter as a last resort would not advocate that she attack the aggressor in this situation, our controlled simulations have revealed that many people who view training videos or complete training programs of this type frequently misapply the concepts and do respond to such scenarios by saying they would attack the aggressor when it is clearly dangerous to do so.

While we do not suggest remaining passive when trapped in an enclosed space with an active shooter, we feel that more comprehensive training approaches are needed to reduce the significant danger that people will misapply the concepts being taught.

School security has been a major topic in Connecticut.  Connecticut school officials have been bombarded with marketing materials, calls by sales people and other contacts by people and organizations trying to sell them safety since the tragedy.  While this has been occurring in all fifty states, education leaders report and frequently lament intensive activities of this type in Connecticut.  During a trip to work with three Connecticut school districts a few weeks ago, several educators and public safety officials expressed anger that a school safety consultant had even rushed to Newtown from another state to do media interviews.  While they understand the need for expert commentary, they felt that giving the appearance that he had been summoned to the scene was both misleading and insensitive.  There have also been a number of instances of reporters approaching the houses of parents who had lost children with microphones concealed in bouquets of flower to ambush parents with surprise interviews, these types of events have generated considerable stress, pain and sensitivity to what one school official referred to as profiteering.  Many people feel they have been victimized all over again.  One administrator told me this week that a school employee who lost a loved one in the incident had decided to retire because of the relentless barrage of media interview requests.

School and public safety officials appreciate and understand that the media can and must report the news.   They also understand and appreciate that there are people and organizations that can help them make their schools safer.  At the same time, many people in the state have expressed that they have grown weary of efforts that they sometimes perceive to be unprofessional, opportunistic and in a few extreme cases, disturbingly predatory.  Though we have not made a single unsolicited phone call nor sent any mail to solicit school security work in Connecticut or any other state in the wake of the Sandy Hook incident, our school safety experts have been very busy providing services to Connecticut schools this year.  While we gladly respond to requests for information and services, we simply do not feel that it is appropriate to solicit work no matter how intense the interest in the subject.    

Responding to requests, our dedicated team of school security experts has had the privilege of keynoting conferences for thousands of people and have conducted numerous school security assessments in Connecticut.  Educators, students, parents, public safety officials, elected officials and members of the public have discussed and debated an array of approaches to try to address the fear generated by the nation’s third most deadly school attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Gun control, arming teachers, metal detectors, security cameras, armed security officers, school resource officers, ballistic laminates, school design, mental health services and many other measures have been discussed at length in an attempt to improve school security in Connecticut. 

When the Connecticut State Police release the much anticipated report outlining the results of their investigation, the airways will again be awash with stories about the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Educators and public safety officials will again be assailed with relentless requests from reporters as is to be expected in a country with cherished and often highly critical freedom of the press.  Citizens of Connecticut will speak their mind in sometimes emotional, emphatic and passionate discussions as can and must occur in a country with a right to free speech unprecedented in world history.  But sadly, school superintendents, headmasters and school board members will be inundated with another round of sometimes insensitive sales pitches.   

I have had the privilege to interact with several thousand educators, public safety officials, elected officials, students, parents and concerned citizens in Connecticut to discuss school security this year.   Though many vendors have been respectful, reasonable and utterly professional as they attempt to conduct business in the state, some have not been so thoughtful.  We urge those who offer services and products relating to school safety and security to be respectful in their efforts to make Connecticut schools safer.